Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Today's news story made me sick. Huffington Post and DailyKos report that Ron Paul campaign manager Kent Snyder, recently passed away from pneumonia. Snyder spent two months in the hospital with no insurance, which means that his family must now cover the $400,000 in debt.

Despite his record as a doctor, despite the millions of dollars he raised, and despite his faith in the free market to settle health care matters, Paul was unable to provide for the most basic of care of one of his top staffers. Why didn't Snyder have insurance? Unfortunately, Snyder had a pre-existing condition, which would have made coverage prohibitively expensive. Readers on this site might remember the fact that he was the one man in all of congress to protest the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act, which would have allowed companies to diagnose pre-existing genetic conditions at the genetic level, for which his supporters were more than happy to cheer him on for, arguing that they shouldn't have to pay for someone else's misfortune (which, ironically, is sort of the entire point of insurance in the first place). Well, congratulations, guy. The bad news is, your campaign manager couldn't buy insurance to cover his pre-existing defect. The good news is, your campaign member couldn't buy insurance to cover his pre-existing defect. Further, there's the fact that Kent Snyder was openly gay, which means that he couldn't get coverage via marriage. Ron Paul opposes gay marriage, and believes that recognizing gay marriage should be done at the state level.

In New Hampshire, when Ron Paul was asked to provide his stance on making health care affordable, Ron Paul attempted to avoid the subject by going off into one of his general rants on inflation, which in this case, wasn't even an accurate use of the term. In Ron Paul's world, the problem isn't the cost of health care, but inflation. His supporters keep insisting that hyperinflation is inevitable and that the U.S. dollar will be worthless in the next few years. Perhaps they believe that by then, paying off the $400,000 debt will be easy, since it will cost people $400,000 just to pay for groceries? Of course, that's only assuming that their economic predictions will come true. For some reason, I doubt it.

His supporters have begun fund raising for him. Maybe it'll be enough, and maybe it won't. But even if it is, what due they intend to do for the tens of millions of people who are likewise affected by the platform that Ron Paul advocates? Libertarians often look down on government programs, citing private charity as the superior solution, and accusing anyone who doesn't believe in private charity as the solution as being hypocritical. Kent Snyder will put their sincerity to the test.

One of the many sad things about all this, is that a surprising amount of gay men think the whole Ron Paul/Libertarian thing is going to be good for them.This is despite that a lot of these people regard them with contempt or actively want to harm them! Are KKK fans really going to support and help gay people,any more than they will help black people? If you end up with Aids they will be falling over each other to cut you loose...

The New York Blade: Ron Paul supporters mourn death of gay campaign chairAt least three gay Paul supporters said it was well known among Paul campaign insiders that Snyder was gay. Although Snyder shunned the public spotlight, activists and political operatives working on the campaigns of rival GOP presidential candidates, including officials with the McCain campaign, recognized Snyder’s efforts in building a major campaign operation for Paul, Paul’s gay supporters said.

“As far as his being out, I don’t think that he was ever in or anything like that,” said Jesse Benton, who served as communications director for the Paul presidential campaign. “But his romantic life was just not something that was discussed. He was the boss and that was that.”

It was Snyder who choose not to pay for his own insurance he was paid well just look at the FEC fillings to note the payout to Synder.

In regards to he genetic issue, yes I would oppose the bill as well becuase of the implications of DNA used in a data base isn't something I want the gov having control over.

I noticed other posts and many are dishonest and do not refect Paul's actual views or stand. Further, if the people aren't informed they may infact support many of your hald truths but for those who study the issues they will not be fooled at all.

I suppose you are anti-american as well becuase a vote to oppose Paul is really a vote to oppose peace, liberty and freedom. At least we know where this site stands.

The good news? Ron is changing the landscape of the GOP and since I have been a member of the GOP for over 20 years it's a welcome change.

Dude, your campaign manager just died. Is this really the time to start spouting off the same tired talking points of "Anyone who doesn't like my candidate must therefore hate freedom and hate America"? Or accusing people of being liars without specific examples of lying?

As for the GINA, what exactly is your argument? Because it looks like all you're saying is that having the government ban discrimination is bad, on the basis that they're the government, and they're banning discrimination. Where exactly does this database of yours come in?

I think the point that has to be made is that (((Snyder ran the campaign and made the call not to offer insurance to any of the employees))). Gay or not, who cares? That's beside the point and really has no relevance. Just adds the little drama that everyone seems to need.

How does that make Ron a bad guy? And who's to say that if the public contributions don't add up that he won't step up to the plate?

The point on being gay is that it's harder for gay people to get health insurance in this country, thanks to the very policy that Ron Paul advocates.

And it makes Ron Paul a bad guy because it shows that he has a bad sense of policy, evident by the fact that his policy isn't working out very well for his own employees. The fact that his own employees bought into these policies that didn't work out very well for them doesn't change the fact that it didn't work.

The Point is Kent snyder's family is four hundred thousand dollars in debt,and Ron Paul has not donated anything to the fund. Kent Snyder was the individual who helped raise most of that money,and now Ron Paul spends it on his own family instead...

It does amuse me to no end that Ron Paul's campaign was run SO HORRIBLY and that's the fault of the "campaign office" and "HQ."

Yeah. Just like the newsletters under his name that he made money off of.

Is there anything bad that happens that IS this man's fault, because, frankly, I think we need a president who TAKES THE BLAME when THINGS GO WRONG instead of one who seemingly gets away with blaming everyone around him when he screws up.